Traction-engine



' (No Model.) I 2SheetsSheet 1.

F. L. FAIRCHILD. Traction Engine.

No. 230,762. Patented Aug. 3,1880.

WITNESSES lNV ENTO R FrankL.

kzZATToRNE PHOTO-LKTNOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON. D O,

(No Model.) 3 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. P. L. PAIROHILD.

Traction Engine.

No. 230,762 Patented Au 3,1880.

M ATTORNEY UNITED STATES FRANK L. FAIRGHILD, OF MOUNT VERNON, OHIO.

TRACTION-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 230,762. dated August 3, 1880.

Application filed J uno 17, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK L. FAIRCHILD, of Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Traction-Engines, of which the followingis a specification.

'My improvementin traction or road engines is directed to means for varying the speed at which the engines move in traveling.

In some casesas, for instance, when the engine is traveling over a heavy roadgreater power is required than when the engine is traveling over a good road. In the latter case an engine can be propelled at greater speed than in the former case; but where the road is heavy the power must be increased, and to do this the speed must be proportionately lessened.

In my Letters Patent No. 225,695, dated March 23, 1880, I have shown mechanism which to a certain extent answers these conditions, the arrangement being such that when the road-engine is backed it moves with less speed but greater power than when moving forward.

In the present improvement, however, it is my object to provide mechanism which, whether the engine is going forward or back ward, will admit of its being propelled at varying power and speed, at the will of the operator.

The nature of the improvement and the manner in which the same is or may be carried into effect can best be explained and understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which the same is represented in its preferred form.

Figure 1 is a plan of so much of a tractionengine as is needed to illustrate my invention, the speed-changing mechanism being represented in section. Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the clutch and clutch-operating devices. Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation on line 2 2, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a section on line 0 o, 1. Fig. 5 is a section on line g y, Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a section on line a: 00, Fig. 2; and Fig. 7, a section of one of the beveled gears on line 20 w, Fig. 1.

The general organization of the engine is similar to that shown and described in my Letters Patent hereinbefore referred to, save that in the present instance the main or man (No model.)

truck-wheels, A, are driven, not by compensatin g-gear, but by pawl-and-ratchet mechanism like that shown in Ooopers Letters Patent No. 218,714 or No. 225,050. So far, however, as my present improvement is concerned, I can employ either the compensating-gear or the pawl-and-ratchet mechanism.

I have also shown in the drawings an intermediate shaft, B, which is provided at each end With an ordinary spur-pinion, (J, said pinion engaging the spur-wheels or the automatic pawl -and -ratchet mechanisms in the usual way, as shown, for instance, in Rogers Reissued Letters Patent No. 8,526, and in other Letters Patent for traction-engines operating on the same principle. The intermediate shaft, however, is not a necessary feature, inasmuch as I can, so far as myimprovement is concerned, gear directly with the rear axle or with the truck-wheel driving mechanism mounted thereon.

Between the intermediate shaft, B, and the engine-shaft D extends the inclined shaft E, mounted in boxes in the usual way, gearing at its upper ends with the engine-shaft and at its lower end with the intermediate shaft. It receives motion from the en gine'shaft through its bevel-wheel F, which is caused to engage one or the other of the lon'gitudinally-movable driving-pinions G H on the engine-shaft, said pinions being connected to and controlled by a single shifting-lever in the manner and for the purpose described in my Letters Patent Movement from the rotating power-driven inclined shaft is communicated to the intermediate shaft in the following way: Upon the inclined shaft are loosely mounted the beveled pinions a b, which are set one above the other, and are held between the box or side bracket, I, at the lower end and the set-collar J on the inclined shaft at the upper end. Neither one of these wheels revolves with the inclined shaft unless thrown into communication with the clutch about to be described.

The beveled pinions are recessed on their contiguous faces, the length of the combined recess 0 thus formed being slightly greater than that of the clutch, so that when the clutch is in its intermediate or central position it will revolve freely in this recess without engaging the bevel-pinions. Back of the recess each bevel-pinion is formed with pockets (1 to receive corresponding projections on the clutch. This clutch is shown at c. It is attached to sliding feathers or bars f, which are seated in grooves in the inclined shaft, the outer faces of the feathers being rounded so as to conform to the curvature of the inclined shaft, as shown in Fig. 4. The sliding feathers extend to a point on the inclined shaft above the collar J, and are there firmly attached to a grooved collar, K, which encircles its said shaft.

The groove in the collar is entered by studs or rollers on the forked end of the shiftinglever L, which straddles the collar in the usual way, and is fulcrumed in the bracket M, Fig. 3, secured to the boiler.

At a suitable point on the engine is fixed a catch-bar, N, Fig. 2, which should be provided with three notches to engage a projection on the handle end of the lever. The lever, when moved, will, through the sliding feathers, actuate the clutch. WVhen the lever is in the central notch in the catch-bar the clutch will 00- cupy the intermediate or central position represented in Fig. 1. When the lever is moved into either one of the end notches the clutch will engage one or the other of the beveled pinions a b, as the case may be.

Upon the intermdiate shaft is fixed a double toothed bevel-wheel, O, with its inner circle, g, of teeth engaging the lower bevel-pinion, a, and its outer circle, h, of teeth engaging the upper bevel-pinion, b.

In the arrangement shown in the drawings pinion a has twenty teeth and pinion 1) nineteen teeth, and on the wheel 0 the smaller circle 9 has fifty-four teeth and the larger circle It has seventy-two teeth.

By moving the clutch in the proper direction one or the other of the bevel-pinions becomes the driviug-pinion of the bevel-wheel O, the other pinion being idle and revolving loosely on the shaft. WVhen the pinion ais the driving-pinion the engine is propelled over the road at comparatively greater speed and with less power. When the bevel-pinion b is the driving-pinion thereis less speed of movement but greater power.

The engine is propelled forward or backward at will by shifting the driving-pinions on the engine-shaft; but whether propelled forward or backward its speed can at any time be. changed, or it can be stopped by a proper movement of the shifting-lever L.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

The combination of the double-toothed bevel-wheel, the inclined shaft, the two pinions mounted loosely thereon and engaging said wheel, the clutchintermediate between said pinions, the clutch-operating mechanism for throwing the clutch into engagement with either or out of engagement with both of said pinions at pleasure, the engine-shaft, and the reversing gearing connecting said shaft with the inclined shaft, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 14th day of June, A. D. 1880.

FRANK L. FAIROHILD.

itnesses S. J. BUTLER, JNo. G. JENNINGS. 

